I currently have my Level 1 in Basic Bookkeeping and am awaiting the 10th June to take my level 2 in Manual Bookkeeping. For almost a month, I have had my business cards up in local post offices, market places and in my accountants office. The card has my contact information on, including my website and the fact that I charge £10 an hour.
I am new to bookkeeping and I have no experience. When I explained this to my accountant a few months ago, he said that £10 was a very competitive price and I should get business easily.
In nearly a month of advertising, I have not had a single enquiry and I am not sure whether it is due to the fact that I am overpriced or that with things economically the way they are at the moment, businesses are doing their own books?
I have today paid just over £80 to advertise in my local newspaper for six weeks running but I was hoping that I wouldn't have to shell out a lot of money advertising before I start getting some work as it is coming out of my pocket and I have already spent about £3000 on courses, software, fees etc
I thought about doing a mailer, but I want to target sole traders mainly and small businesses but looking through the local paper and the yellow pages, I have no idea how to tell who are the kind of businesses that I wish to target.
In summary, I guess my questions are:
1. Should I lower my hourly fee 2. Is it a struggle at the moment for bookkeepers to take on new clients 3. Should I try a mailer using the local yellow pages, has anyone had any luck with this?
If you are starting your bookkeeping business now it is much harder to gain new clients.
If you don't have experience then I would say that is making it that much more difficult for you.
I am in West Yorkshire and would say after a lot of research that the hourly rate varies from £8 - £15 an hour based on experience and assuming that Sheffield - South Yorkshire may be similar. I would advise maybe seeing if reducing your hourly rate to £8 an hour with in your terms when you gain client stating that your hourly rate is to be reviewed from time to time. I normally review in January each year - for current clients for their loyalty theres does not increase until April. This year I just kept as the same because of the recession.
On a positive note, you have your cards and advertising sorted, you just need a lucky break.
On the point of targeting sole traders, check out your local newspaper for traders such as plasterers, electricians, plumbers, gardeners even mobile hairdressers, discos etc., look in your local phone directory for their addresses if not included in their advert and send a flyer. Local phone directory - very time consuming but you can get results, look down each listing and send a cover letter + sales flyer + business card to traders, small companies (often working from home address - if you know your local area you will be able to gather who is working from home, generally those working from home are sole traders / small limited companies). Also, when you are out and about make note of any trade vans, again often sole traders.
You will find that you can send in excess of 100, 200 or 300 flyers out and only get a few enquiries, so the above suggestions are time consuming but I think because of this some people tend not to do this because of the time involved, but I have had a few results from adopting these methods.
Also, bookkeeping rates - as a selling point , offer a free trial period which will depend on what the clients needs ie; weekly, fortnightly or monthly bookkeeping.
Hope this gives you some ideas to get along with - unfortunately times are a little difficult at the moment even for us practicing bookkeepers, like Alison says, you need to keep yourself competitive and that comes down to not hiking the prices up but ensuring that those clients we do have stay with us ! Just keep going, you will strike lucky.
There's a few points I'd like to mention here... and hopefully they will be helpful for you.
The first is on the hourly rate. We posted a blog entry last year called "What Hourly Rate?" which is probably worth a read. It's not to say what rate you should charge, but gives you some things to consider.
I don't think we'd recommend charging much less than £12/hr when quoting an hourly rate. If you think of £8/hr, it would be:
£8/hr x 35hrs/wk x 48wks/yr = £13,440 per annum
With no consideration given to billable hours worked, sickness or other entitlements, overhead costs include insurances, computer, software, work space, utilities, advertising and so on. You mention already spending £3K, so you can see that would give you at best just over £10K per annum.
I do expect at that rate you could find yourself lucky to be receiving a minimum statutory wage for your work so just be cautious with this.
Mind you, this may just be a temporary thing to bring in some initial clients.
Which brings me to the next point I wanted to mention...
Why advertise and promote an hourly rate?
The hourly rate to a client is only as good as the number of hours it takes to do the work, and it is giving them a way to judge very quickly and reach a decision. A high rate and they may think it's expensive, a lot rate and they may see it as inexperience and a lower level of service or efficiency.
I'd suggest focussing on the benefit to people more than the cost, especially when it is an advert at this stage - to attract their attention and bring them to action (phoning or emailing).
As Julie suggests, offering a free or even half price trial period may help entice them to take that action. There's no need to say rates at this stage either, think about the problem your potential clients have and present an attractive and appealing solution.
